


talk

by peachpal



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Gen, I'm weak and I like writing about tiny domestic scenes, M/M, SO, buddyshipping - Freeform, i guess, late night chit chat, slight... au?, vague mention of self abusive behaviors, yeah - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-03
Updated: 2015-12-03
Packaged: 2018-05-04 18:59:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5344991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peachpal/pseuds/peachpal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Honda, you dumbass cardboard box with legs, it's you. You're the one I have the big gay crush on.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	talk

The latch on the window snapped and Honda sat up in bed, groggy. He could just make out the shape of a body crawling in over the sill. He rubbed at his eyes and yawned. The body on the sill stiffened.

"I didn't wake you up, did I?"

Honda chuckled and sat all the way up, scooting over in bed. "Nah, dude, I usually wake up around this time. Come in if you're coming. It's cold and you're letting out the heat." Thank god it was Jounochi. Honda was getting way too comfortable with people crawling into his room late at night. But, Honda supposed with another drawn out yawn, there'd be no one else coming in through that window at that hour, and that he was too tired to worry about it.

 Jounochi kicked his shoes off and slid onto the empty side of the bed with a sigh. Honda frowned when their knees bumped under the duvet.

"Are you wearing jeans? You can't wear those in my bed I'm not going to deal with that. Not to sound gay or whatever, but take those off, man," Honda slid back down under the covers and pulled them up to his chin before swiping his phone from the bedside table. While Jounochi grumbled and stripped down to his boxers, Honda sent a text to his parents.

\- _Hey, Jounochi is here. He’s ok, no bumps or bruises_.

He rolled over just as the bed was dipping under Jounochi's weight again. In the pale, whitish glow from the streetlamp outside Honda could just make out the features of Jounochi's face- his button nose, his dark eyelashes, his eyebrows peeking out beneath his messy bangs. He didn't look happy. His eyes were closed, but his brows were knitted together like he was frustrated or angry. Honda tucked his hand under his cheek.

“Uh, are you good, or do you wanna talk?”

 Jounochi's eyes opened slowly and searched Honda's face for a moment before settling on a point just past his shoulder. He was quiet, his eyes narrowing like he was combing his brain for the right words.

Jounochi huffed and bit his lip. “I… feel like it's kind of an awkward thing to talk about as we’re both laying here in our underwear at ass crack o’clock.”

Honda just chuckled and scooted a little closer, minutely, just enough for their knees to touch. Just enough for him to know that yes, Jounochi was here, and he was safe, and he was warm and alive. “You and Yugi swap porn and then talk about it, man. What is it that is so awkward that it somehow not only trumps the weirdness of that, but also makes you not want to talk to me about it?” Jounochi was silent again, and Honda's stomach dropped.

“Jounochi, your dad isn't—“

“No, dude, fuck!” Jounochi yelped. “No way I'd let something like that happen. I'd kill my old man before I let him lay a hand on me. Why did you even have to take it there? What the fuck?”

“Shut up, man!” Honda gave Jounochi's shoulder a light shove. “You trying to get us in trouble? My folks are sleeping, and if you wake them up we’re going to get an earful.” Honda settled down again and watched Jounochi rub at his shoulder before speaking again. “I wasn't trying to be weird or nothing; it's just that you're acting weird as shit and I don't really know what to make out it. Why are you being so cryptic anyway? Just say whatever you have to say and stop messing around.”

“Yeah, but what if what I tell you ruins our… friendship forever?”

Honda blinked. Jounochi looked serious about that. Ruin their friendship? What kind of news could Jounochi possibly have that would destroy their friendship? Honda wracked his brain thinking of all of the possible things that could topple the fortified tower of badass that made up the friendship that he and Jounochi had built together over the past five years and came up blank.

“Are you stealing your dad’s meds again?”

“Not since year 3 of middle school.”

 “Are you burning again?”

 “Not since you took my lighter.”

 “Have you wrecked my bike?”

 “I can't drive it.”

“Then, I don't know what you think I'd be mad at you about,” Honda said. “And none of that shit would ruin our friendship either. Well the bike might lose you a few brownie points. But dude, there's not a single thing that you can say to me that's going to—“

“Shizuka is gay,” Jounochi blurted out. Honda rolled his eyes. It was too early for this. Or late. What time was it, anyway?

Honda wiggled farther under the duvet and yawned. “Good for her. Why would that ruin our friendship.”

Jounochi sighed and sat up in bed, picking at his thumbnail with his index finger. “Shizuka told me about it about a week ago. It really threw me you know. I guess I knew that people were gay, but just not people close to me. I've got no problems with it, and she's my sister and I love her and I'm happy for her. She's got this girl in her class that she's into and that's really cool. Shizuka is so confident with all this; she's totally at ease with it. I still can't really believe my baby sis is old enough to want to date.”

 Honda stayed quiet but kept his eyes on Jounochi's hands. He was about to break his thumbnail if he used anymore force.

 “So, I'm talking to her the other day, right,” Jounochi's knee began to bob under the duvet and Honda placed a hand onto it to stop him. “I'm talking to her, and she's gushing about this girl and how cute she is, and she's going to ask her on a date, and she's asking me what she should say, you know, how she should ask this girl out. And I'm realizing that I have no clue. I've never asked a girl out. I've liked lots of girls, but I've never asked a girl out. Not even Anzu. Like, Anzu is a pretty hot girl, right? I've never once wanted to ask her out on a date, or wondered what it would be like to kiss her. Mai was really hot, and I thought I wanted to be with her, but I don't when I really think about it.”

Jounochi ran a hand through his hair and stopped. He was staring at a point on the ceiling. The spot that was about a half a foot to the left of Honda's light fixture. The spot he stared at when he was trying not to cry. Honda gave Jounochi's knee an encouraging squeeze. He had a feeling he knew where this story was going, but Jounochi needed to talk through it, so he was going to let him.

 A shaky breath escaped Jounochi, but he continued. “I think girls are awesome, Honda. They're really awesome. I get why Shizuka likes them that's for sure. Girls are probably the best thing on earth after the Internet and buffet restaurants. But Shizuka, she said to me that I… well, I told her she was wrong, but she thinks that I, you know. That I play for both teams.”

Honda waited a moment to make sure Jounochi was done talking before giving his knee a shake. “Dude, that's it? Man, I thought you were going to tell me something actually bad! You had me worried! I don't care. You can play for whatever teams you want. We’ll still be pals. Why did you think that'd bug me?”

Jounochi rubbed at his face with his hands. “Because,” he spat. “When I got off the phone with Shizuka I was laying in bed thinking about what she said and I realized that maybe the reason I hadn't asked a single girl out was because I'd already had it really bad for someone else, only I didn't realize it because that someone was a guy and I didn't realize that I was having weird gay feelings. Because they were a guy.”

“It better not be Kaiba, man. I support you and stuff, but don't ask me to be the best man at that wedding because I will be the one standing and objecting to that shit because he's—“

“Honda, you dumbass cardboard box with legs, it's you. You're the one I have the big gay crush on,” Jounochi growled and Honda felt the blood drain from his face.

He sat up as well. He cleared his throat, nodded, and opened his mouth to reply, but all that came out was a squeaky “oh,”

Jounochi was quiet for another moment before he spoke again, his voice uncharacteristically small. “I thought maybe I could prove myself wrong by coming up here, but as soon as I heard your voice, my chest got all tight, and my throat felt like it was closing up and I just felt… damn it, I just. I'm sorry, Honda, I am. I know you're never going to let me come up here again, and I promise I wasn’t being a weirdo or anything, you just mean a lot to me, and I like ya. So. I guess I'll see ya around.”

Jounochi's legs went over the edge of the bed, and he moved to grab his jeans. Honda's brain was running in slow motion. Jounochi had a crush on him? That couldn't be real. Jounochi had a crush on him, Hiroto Honda. He grabbed Jounochi’s shoulder.

“What?” Jounochi's voice sounded strained.

Honda exhaled through his nose and spoke before he could think any harder. “Do you remember in Battle City, when you dueled against Malik and you got struck by lightning and you were dead? Don't give me that look, you were dead, I know you were because I was the first one to get to your body. And you were all pale, and you were just limp, and nothing I did could wake you up. That was the single worst moment of my life. That was terrifying. I don't even remember much after that, cuz I basically shut down. I know for a fact that I was crying like a bitch, and I wanted to beat the shit out you for pulling a stunt like that. I think Otogi had to grab me because I was losing it. And it's not weird to be devastated when watching a friend die. I know that, but I was honestly resolved to follow you if you didn't come back. I was sitting there in a chair next to your bed and I entertained the idea of dying because you wouldn't come back to me. I really would have preferred death over having to live without you.”

Jounochi scoffed. “So, what?”

 “So,” Honda parroted back sarcastically. “I'm saying that I'm pretty sure that we’re not only on the same team, we’re both on the diamond, and I'm trying to pitch the ball to you, and—“

 “Don't,” Jounochi interrupted. “Let's not go there. Shizuka just educated me on gay lingo and you're about to say something stupid.”

Honda shrugged. “I'll stop talking if you lay back down.”

Jounochi hesitated. “You're not fucking with me, are you?”

Honda rolled his eyes. “Man, it's damn near two am and you think I’m trying to exploit your gay feelings? Get over yourself and lay down with me, or I'm breaking up with you.”

 “That's a little bit hard to do when we’re not even dating, genius,” Jounochi replied, snuggling back under the covers.

 Honda felt Jounochi's knee touch his, and yeah, that feeling was definitely affection, all warm and fluffy and stifling and freeing all at the same time. A smile spread across his face as a realization dawned on him. “Hate to break it to you, dude, but I think we always have been.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> ahhhhhhh I'm kind of shy to post this! 
> 
> I think that Honda and Jounochi have such a cute friendship, and I love writing about them and also I'm buddyshipping trash.


End file.
